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Screener Squad: Rent-A-Pal

Rent-A-Pal Movie Review

RENT-A-PAL MOVIE REVIEW

It’s hard to imagine just how far some people will go for friendship. Even imaginary friendship. That’s the story of David, a nebbishy fellow who lives in his mother’s basement while being her caretaker as she is in the mid-to-late stages of dementia. Loneliness is his entire life; even his mother doesn’t remember who he is. Using a video dating service that requires renting videotaped profiles of prospective love interests (this takes place in 1990), he finds himself not exactly being viewed as ‘a catch’. Then, he stumbles across a different sort of tape, “Rent-A-Pal” that features a man named Andy (Wil Wheaton) being filmed talking to the camera as if he was having a convivial conversation with the viewer. At first disdainful of the silliness of the whole thing, David finds himself getting sucked into the fantasy of a friendship with Andy and what is real and what is fantasy begins to blur. But, according to half our review crew, perhaps not blurry enough. Adrian, Wright, Marco, and Chris didn’t see eye to eye on this one. Come listen to whether we thought we could be BFFS or if we were just being friend-catfished.


Hey, this one comes as well in a uncut video version for you TIME LORD and above subscribers out there. Click here to check it out.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Jon Stevenson

STARRING: Wil Wheaton, Brian Landis Folkins, Amy Rutledge, Kathleen Brady, Adrian Egolf, Josh Staab, Luke Sorge, Olivia Hendrick, Karin Carr, Sara Woodyard, Brandon Fryman

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